Fuel sales down by a third as drivers stay at home

The pandemic has shifted typical Guernsey life and touched virtually all aspects of everyday activities.

Forecourts are allowed to stay open under the lockdown because they help key workers get around and are regarded as an essential service.

Trevor Hockey, the owner of Trev’s Motorcycles in the Vale, is supportive of the lockdown and the stay at home message, and like his competitors he has noticed a substantial drop-off in trade.

‘Everybody is seeing less demand, this coronavirus is hitting people badly, we should be doing about 10,000 litres a week, and last week we did 3,300.

‘And that leads to a knock-on effect because out of that there’s a loss to the government of some £4,800 in fuel duties.’

In the era of Covid-19, the UK trade association of petrol retailers has warned that some garages there may have to close, but Mr Hockey is more optimistic about the local picture.

‘It won’t close us because of three things; firstly we have no staff, it’s just me and my wife, so we have no staff to pay, we own the place so we don’t have any rent to pay, and on top of that because I’m an OAP, I’m getting £222.58 every Friday from the States.

‘So it won’t close us, but it could make life very difficult for some of our competitors.’

The global demand for crude oil is in freefall and the barrel price has fallen dramatically to levels not seen since 2002.

The cost of petrol in the UK is approaching £1 a litre for the first time since 2016.

It has prompted some local motorists to ask when the price drop will be felt at island forecourts.

Mr Hockey, who prides himself on regularly topping the chart produced by the Guernsey Fuel & Oil Watch Group for least expensive fuel, said local prices were falling and were likely to go down further.

He also noted that customers sometimes underestimate the high tax on fuel, with tax charged by the litre so that part does not fluctuate with price.

‘The price of our fuel is 54.7p per litre and the rest is tax at 72.2p, so if you actually take the fuel duty element out, our fuel is 54.7p, and that includes our profit, the fuel company’s profit, the cost of getting it out of the ground, storing it, transporting it, refining it and everything else.’

Nigel Staples runs the fuel watch group and he explained the time lag between the global oil price and the price at local forecourts.

‘The barrel price today is not indicative of the pump price today, the barrel price four to six weeks ago is indicative of the price today because that’s how long it takes for fuel to get through the refinery, it’s got to be distributed, you’ve got to bear in mind there’s X amount of litres in storage already in Guernsey, so our price is relevant to when the boats come in and the price that the wholesalers pay at that time.’